notables as William Rockefeller , Cornelius Vanderbilt , Andrew Carnegie , Stanford White , Charles Dana Gibson , Ethel Barrymore and Grover Cleveland .
A Presidential Secret
Oneida ’ s biggest claim to fame was in service to President Grover Cleveland who , in late June of 1893 , reported a rough spot on the roof of his mouth and was promptly diagnosed as having a malignant cancer of the upper palate . The diagnosis has the potential to be fatal unless an operation was performed immediately .
The US economy at the time was in alarming disarray . The Treasury had been seriously depleted by Cleveland ’ s predecessor , some 500 banks and 15,000 businesses had gone into bankruptcy and Wall Street was in a shambles trying to sort out the effects of these events . Due to the nation ’ s financial instability , Cleveland decided to avoid further panic by having the surgery performed in secret . He asked his friend , Elias Cornelius Benedict , to adapt the Oneida ( which Cleveland could board , as he often did , without arousing suspicion ) by converting its main salon into a makeshift operating room . The physicians and their patient , who arrived by special train , boarded the yacht on July 3 , 1893 .
It is difficult to imagine any surgery on a President of the United States being kept under wraps . But in July 1893 , not one but two surgeries were performed on the President , and both were kept secret for over a quarter of a century — well past President Cleveland ’ s death in 1908 .
The Home at Indian Harbor
In 1895 , Benedict completed what he must have considered his crowning achievement : an Italianate home on the Greenwich shore known to this day as Indian Harbor . The architect was Thomas Hastings of Carrere and Hastings , who also designed the New York Public Library and the famous Flagler hotels .
Hastings eventually married one of Benedict ’ s daughters , and 2,000 guests were invited to the wedding and reception at Indian Harbor , where they were attended to by 1,700 servants . This kind of opulence was nothing new to the peninsula of land that had previously housed the Americus Club , owned and operated by the notorious William “ Boss ” Tweed
Benedict iceboating on Long Island Sound at age 71 in 1905 .
until he was arrested and indicted in the 1870s . According to a local newspaper , Tweed and his followers held their revels there — wine flowing freely , gold being scattered to the winds .
When Benedict acquired the property , the entire edifice was demolished . The dining room , however , was a wholly separate building , ornate to a point surpassing gaudiness . Despite ( or perhaps because of ) its design , Benedict had it re-purposed as his boathouse . One relative recalled the showplace aspect of the home and Benedict ’ s tendency toward keeping an entourage in tow .
With his massive personality , Benedict had been named “ Commodore ” of the Seawanhaka Corinthian Yacht Club ; and with his fervent interest in exploring all things new , he decided to lead sailing expeditions up the Amazon River in 1905 . Instead of risking the Oneida , Benedict astutely chartered someone else ’ s yacht to explore how rubber was being farmed . His 1905 expedition aboard the Virginia is recorded in Ten Thousand Miles In a Yacht , a book published by one of the guests on the three-month voyage . Highlights include descriptions of rubber gathering that somewhat resembled “ sugaring off ” maple trees in New England . Eventually , the yacht Oneida was enlisted to explore the Amazon , stocked with everything imaginable — from snakebite medicine to bandages purchased fresh each spring .
The Oneida would then return Benedict to Indian Harbor and a life that was also
Courtesy of the Greenwich Historical Society marked by a high degree of self-sufficiency . Benedict owned a gas company , so there was gas for the entire estate . “ It had everything ,” recalled the late Dr . Horace Bassett , whose father ran the household help . “ It had a windmill , so it drew its own irrigation to water flowers and food grown in the gardens .”
Wall Street Advice
Looking back on his long life and career , Benedict said , “ As I have told young men who have applied to me for advice , don ’ t try to compete with the Standard Oil Company ; don ’ t try to compete with the United States Steel Corporation . Turn your attention to places where the colossal corporations and people do business ; hold your hat on the other side of the counter at which they spend their money . They will spend their money . Hold your hat where it is going out .”
Benedict ’ s lifetime spanned 22 presidents , from Andrew Jackson through Woodrow Wilson , and the advances he witnessed must have boggled the mind . He saw the telegraph invented , gold discovered in California and the telegraph replaced by the telephone . He helped motor cars replace horse-drawn carriages and saw the Civil War foot soldiers replaced by the fighter pilots of World War I . Benedict ’ s original nickname , “ Corny ,” was supplanted when Benedict became known , even on Wall Street , as “ The Commodore .”
“ For 64 years I was in Wall Street , the center of our financial storms in this country and the reflex of all the financial storms abroad , and how I was able to stand it I do not know , unless it was through the inherited strength I possess ,” Benedict wrote on his 79th birthday . “ And speaking of Wall Street , I would like to say that I never invited anybody to go into it , and I have invited many to stay away from it .”
Whitney McKendree Moore grew up sailing in Greenwich , Connecticut , where Commodore Benedict was ( and still is ) legendary . Among her published works is an article on him that appeared in the Nautical Quarterly ( Number 49 ). She still writes for publication and is now helping others publish their own books and stories .
www . MoAF . org | Spring 2016 | FINANCIAL HISTORY 33